CHARTER SCHOOL GETS BUILDING PERMITS, STILL FACES LEGAL BATTLES
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — A Macomb County Circuit Court Judge has
ruled in favor of granting a charter public school permits to
build in Warren, according to The Detroit News.

Conner Creek Academy East filed a lawsuit against Michigan's
Bureau of Construction Codes, a part of the Department of Labor
and Economic Growth, for failing to issue building permits it
said it would provide. Conner Creek plans to build an $11
million, 61,000-square-foot school. Macomb Circuit Judge David
Viviano also ruled that the city of Warren may join the state as
a defendant in any remaining legal battles, The News reported.
Jeff Schroeder, assistant city attorney for Warren, told The
News the city plans to fight the new public school, claiming it
will damage Warren's neighborhoods and roads.

Robert Davis, Conner Creek's attorney, said the school has
fulfilled all legal requirements for the project, and that the
city should not be involved in the case, The News reported.

"The city of Warren has intervened in a case which only sought
to have the state do its job and issue the necessary permits as
approved by the state superintendent," Davis told The News. "The
city has a well-known history of bullying when the law does not
accommodate their thought of the day. This is calculated delay
tactics and bordering on harassment, for which my client will
seek damages."

NEW TECHNOLOGY HITS METRO DETROIT CLASSROOMS
DETROIT — Many Metro Detroit schools are taking steps to make
cutting edge technology available to students in ways to keep
them engaged and to hopefully boost academic performance,
according to the Detroit Free Press.

In Bloomfield Township, some classrooms are utilizing
"interactive blackboards" that serve as a projector screen and
computer and allow students to participate in the lessons with
small voting devices. The district is planning to install one of
these boards in each classroom by the start of next school year.
Additionally, in New Baltimore, fifth grade students create
podcasts of lessons and put them on the Web, the Free Press
reported.

The Mandarin Chinese language program in the South Redford
Schools utilizes a webcam to communicate with a teacher at a
school in China, while also interacting with Chinese pen pals.

Schools are incorporating technology in an effort to match the
learning styles of a generation brought up using technology.

"If we deliver information like we used to do in the traditional
way, kids are bored in the classroom," Ledong Li, an assistant
professor of education at Oakland University, told the Free
Press. "They don't feel they are engaged."

NEW TRAVERSE CITY CHARTER UP AND RUNNING
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A new charter public school is having a
tough start in Traverse City after facing zoning regulation
problems, but school officials, students and parents are
confident in what it has to offer, according to the Traverse
City Record-Eagle.

The Traverse City College Preparatory Academy is chartered by
Bay Mills Community College and run by the Leona Group LLC. The
school focuses on a college prep curriculum and leadership
training. The school currently enrolls 50 students, but expected
about twice that number, the Record Eagle reported.

"We have a mission and a vision," said Cameron Owens, the
school's administrator. "But we believe people are in a wait and
see mode. We underestimated how difficult this would be."

Organizers faced trouble with zoning regulations because of
plans to transform a previously existing church into the school.
The school wasn't completed in time to attract as many students
as it would have liked, but families with students enrolled in
the school are happy with what they have seen so far, according
to the Record-Eagle.

Parent Sheri Wallace home-schooled her son, Geoffrey, currently
a sophomore, and was looking for a school with small class sizes
and dedicated staff members.

"His excitement is about the staff here — their enthusiasm and
creativity is what drew us in," she said. "We were also looking
for a small, safe environment."

FURTHER READING:
Mackinac Center for Public Policy, "The Impact of Limited School
Choice on Public School Districts," July 24, 2000
http://www.mackinac.org/2962

ANN ARBOR SCHOOLS RECEIVES $4.8 MILLION FROM STATE
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Ann Arbor Public Schools is working to
decide where it can use the $4.8 million it will receive from
the state after clearing up a bookkeeping dispute stemming from
the passage of Proposal A in 1994, according to The Ann Arbor
News.

After the passage of Proposal A, Scio Township in Washtenaw
County continued to send tax revenue to the Ann Arbor Public
Schools instead of forwarding it onto the state. In 2004-2005,
state officials began deducting a portion of the $13 million the
district received in revenue that should have initially been
sent to Lansing. It appears, however, that the state deducted
$4.8 million too much and will return it to the district, The
News reported.

The district already has a fund balance equal to about 15
percent of the total budget, and is considering putting the
money into its capital needs account, according to The News.

WESTWOOD EXPANDS ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION COMPANY'S PROGRAM
DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. — The Westwood Community School district
is expanding the role of an alternative education company in
order to serve more at-risk students, according to the Dearborn
Press and Guide.

Ombudsman Educational Services, an affiliate of Educational
Services of America, is based in Nashville, Tenn., and manages
more than 120 schools and programs throughout the country.

After relocating, the program will be able to accommodate about
90 at-risk high school students, an increase of 30 students from
its previous capacity. Ombudsman serves students with issues
such as truancy, learning or behavioral disabilities and
academic skill deficiencies. The company reports an 85 percent
success rate nationally, with those students graduating from the
program or their assigned school district, or earning academic
credits.

MICHIGAN EDUCATION DIGEST is a service of Michigan Education
Report (http://www.educationreport.org),
a quarterly newspaper
published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy
(http://www.mackinac.org),
a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan
research and educational institute.